"…'The original sins. Those evil acts committed by humans and gods during the early stages of creation. As I write these words the original sins are attempting to plunge all of creation into the vile darkness of original sin. The gods themselves are not strong enough to fight of them, they cry out to the highest of power Ao to save them all from themselves…Ao listens an-' "
The bookish woman looks up from the tome to the well dressed handsome man in front of her. He smiles at her knowing the question about to come from her lips.
"Those pages were torn out when I got it. The expedition wasn’t able to find them within the tombs or without even after they're release."
She nodded; her unkempt hair seemingly becoming even wilder. She turns to the pages remaining to read on.
" 'Now the original sins are bound into the ground entombed never to be released upon creation ever again. For even Io does not have the power to destroy the original sins as long as there is life. He can only counter and contain the originals. Let it be known that if you are reading this then you have already unleashed the vilest of evils upon creation once again. I hope that you have enough sense to read the earlier pages and counter them as we had in the past. Evil or good what comes out will consume and destroy you. You must find them and contain them again within the year if you do not all of creation is doomed. Remember my words. This has been penned by Ariel the Solar. Wow….I don't know if I should be cowering in the corner or jumping for joy for reading such a find. Did you really release these creatures? ' "
The handsome man fidgeted in his seat and then hung his head low.
"I believe we did, shortly after opening the tombs one of the members began to slowly descend into madness. He called himself Pain and eventually killed nearly everyone in the camp with some exceptions….I am one of the only few remaining survivors. However I did not escape empty handed…"
He smiled and pulled out a deep red crystal shattered on the top to reveal a hollow center.
"I believe this to be what remains of their prison. This crystal was in the deepest tomb. Do you know what it is?"
"No…I never have seen a crystal like this. However I sense no magic about it anymore. I'm afraid it's useless…"
The man smiled and pulled out another crystal this one looked intact. The Loremaster reached out and took it into her hands and cast her spell to try and identify the magic within. As she finished the spell she was suddenly knocked back as a powerful flash of light threw her back a good twenty feet off her chair. She sputtered to get to her feet, her mousy hair burning a bit. The nobleman rushed to her aid.
"By the gods! Are you okay!? What was that?!"
"Wow! That was a magical feedback the magic within that crystal is power I've never before seen or even heard about! You should tell the Queen about this…She'll need to know about this."
The nobleman nodded.
"I already did I am under orders to aquire adventurers to capture them with this crystal. The Queen does not want to create a panic and wants this to be kept quiet. She has ordered you to accompany me as well."
"W-what!? I can't go! I'm not the adventuring type!"
"Still you also have the largest book collection about this problem. Also you’re the only one in toril who has ANY knowledge about this threat. Frankly I wouldn’t disobey a royal decree…"
"Alright, alright! I'll go…Who else is going?"
"A wizard that seems to have approached us, perhaps not coincidently, by the name of Canarius, rather strange fellow. There's also someone called 'Justicar' that's currently working for the crown on locating the escaped Sins and other crystals. As for the adventurers, I sent out the call today. They are to meet us at Arabel; from there we will head into the Stonelands and our camp. From there we can teleport into The Sword, and the dig site."
The loremaster looked up at the crystal glowing red atop her desk.
"If we can't stop this…we're all doomed…Still why it had to be in the desert…"
